A team of geologists from Toronto-based Continental Gold Inc. was holed up in a remote farmhouse in Colombia’s rugged mountains on a rainy September night, planning to collect rocks and prospect for gold.

Instead, they were attacked by gunmen.

Two men and one woman — all geologists between the ages of 24 and 32 — were killed. The others suffered bullet wounds, broken bones and bruises, according to public accounts of the attack, which is receiving wide coverage in the Colombian media.

For years, Canadian mining companies have considered large swaths of Colombia too dangerous to enter because of the armed conflict between the government, right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing fighters, drug cartels and crime syndicates.

But a peace accord in 2016 has enticed the world’s largest mining companies and many of Canada’s juniors, such as Continental Gold, to send geologists into the largely unexplored pockets of the Colombian Andes, hoping to find a mother lode of undiscovered precious metals even though Colombia can still be a dangerous place to operate.

“We’re now in a period of the post-accord, but it’s not post-conflict,” said Catherine LeGrand, a professor of history at McGill University in Montreal who studies Colombia. “The (peace) accord has been signed, but there’s still conflict between certain armed groups.”

Now questions are swirling in Colombia and elsewhere about what Continental can do to better protect its employees.

The attack in September was the third its teams have faced since 2017, and 10 people — including the three young geologists — have died. An engineer was killed earlier in September, and six security contractors died in July 2017 from “apparent asphyxiation” after a bomb was exploded while they were inspecting an illegal mine, according to the company.

“Obviously, we missed something here,” said Paul Begin, Continental’s chief financial officer about the most recent attack. “But if we had any whiff that anything was going to happen, why would we take that risk?”

That’s a question Colombians are asking, too, as funerals for the murdered geologists, all nationals, take place across the country. Interviewed on the radio in Colombia, a father of one of the dead geologists said his daughter, 28, had told him she was scared of an attack, and saw signs it was coming, according to news reports.

Another father grieved on Colombian radio about his son, 32, who had been working for Continental for only five months.

Investors may also be spooked: Continental’s stock has dropped 23 per cent from $3.33 before disclosing the attack to trade at around $2.55 as of Thursday.

Mark Turner, a mining investor who publishes a widely read blog in the industry, this week said he has withdrawn his sponsorship of a Colombian gold conference scheduled for November because Continental is a sponsor of the event and he didn’t want to be associated.

Turner has called the company a “disgrace” for sending geologists into a “high security risk” area, and for its response to the tragedy, while questioning its statements about what threats it received in advance of the attack.

Continental has experience in Colombia. Its website touts the company’s “first mover advantage” in the country, having arrived more than a decade ago.

Its plans to build a gold mine that can produce 300,000 ounces of gold per year — roughly double what is currently produced by all the mines in the entire country, according to Continental — have attracted attention.

Last May, Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp., the world’s second-biggest gold miner, invested $109 million for a 19.9-per-cent stake in Continental.

Newmont has also opened its own office in Medellin, the capital of Colombia’s mountainous Antioquia region, and invested an additional $600,000 in Surrey, B.C.-based Miranda Gold Corp., which promotes itself as the “most aggressive and active ‘prospect generator’” working in Colombia.

People have searched for gold in Colombia dating back to at least the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. The Andean mountains run through the country, as they do in Peru, Chile and other countries, but Colombia has not been explored as thoroughly during the past several decades.

“Its geography is particularly complex,” said LeGrand, adding the high mountains and low river valleys make it difficult to access certain areas, which has also made it difficult to govern.

Beginning in the 1960s, armed conflict started between the government and the left-leaning Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC, and other groups, which took control of some parts of the country.

One of the key areas of contention with the often right-leaning government was how to govern natural resources, such as oil and minerals, and whether exploration and development should be privatized or not. Eventually, large landowners hired paramilitaries to protect their property.

Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) at a camp in the Colombian mountains in 2016, the year the guerilla group agreed to a peace accord with the government.LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images

As part of the peace accords that began in 2016, FARC agreed to lay down its weapons. LeGrand said they largely have, but criminal elements or dissident guerrilla fighters have taken over in some of the places it once controlled.

“In the cities, where most people live, things have largely calmed down,” she said, “but in these outlying areas, where the disputes are happening, it’s a whole other story.”

Continental’s Begin said his company has explored “without incident” in the past and said it did everything it could to protect its teams: for example, contacting the army and local politicians, and using private security.

But he acknowledged that the area where the attacked geologists were exploring, near the small village of Ochali, in the Antioquia region, was previously under FARC control, and also that the company knew danger lurked.

In these outlying areas, where the disputes are happening, it's a whole other story

Catherine LeGrand, a professor of history at McGill University in Montreal who studies Colombia

“We did receive some information the night before,” Begin said. “It was more like the company became aware through gossip that the ex-FARC guys didn’t want us there, and, consequently, we decided we were going to leave.”

Begin would not say exactly how the company received that information, and said it concluded, incorrectly, that the threat to its team wasn’t imminent. As a result, the team stayed for the night with plans to leave in the morning. It turned out to be too late.

The attack in September followed one just two weeks earlier in which one engineer working at Continental’s mine site was shot and killed, and another was wounded. At the mine site, which is also located in Antioquia but about 250 kilometres away, Begin said Continental is dealing with illegal miners, which he described as organized criminals whom the Colombian government is trying to drive out.

“About eight to 10 weeks ago, the government closed down their last illegal mine,” he said. “We believe these engineers were targeted as retribution.”

Begin said there are also families that have mined gold in the area for decades or longer. The company signed contracts with them, he said, agreeing to process their gold without using mercury, which is toxic to the environment.

The BuriticÃ¡ project is Continental Gold’s 100%-owned flagship high-grade gold project located in the middle Cauca belt in the northwest region of Colombia.Handout Continental Gold

Other Canadian companies, such as Toronto-based Gran Colombia Gold Corp., have also faced problems. In 2017, one of its mines faced protests by a local mining collective that lasted 42 days.

Gran Colombia’s workers have also faced a terror campaign from a right-wing paramilitary that extorted its workers, and in at least one case murdered a worker from one of its mines, according to a 2016 investigation by the Toronto Star.

Gran Colombia has also filed for arbitration against Colombia in a claim registered this summer.

Davies declined to comment on the claim, calling it confidential, but records show it relates to trade agreements between Canada and Columbia and news reports said it comes after the government ordered the company to close one of its mine sites.

Colombia is the most prospective country arguably in the world today to find big large high-grade deposits

Paul Begin, Continental Gold's chief financial officer

The site had been planned as an open pit, but the company’s website shows it has switched to building an underground mine after resistance from the community.

Davies said his company is encouraged that major mining companies are starting to invest in exploring the country. In addition to Newmont, Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. has invested $1.5 million in a junior exploration company working in Colombia, and other companies are also investing.

If anything, Begin said, the peace agreement has encouraged companies, and Continental has no plans to leave or stop exploring.

“Colombia is the most prospective country arguably in the world today to find big large high-grade deposits,” he said.

But Begin said he spent last week at a gold conference in Denver where many people asked about the recent attacks.

“A lot of people,” he said, “kind of shrug their shoulders and say, unfortunately, these kinds of things do happen in emerging countries.”

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